Vintage Year Bruce Fleisher came from nowhere to have a rookie season on the Senior tour that was second to none

When Jessica Fleisher was three, she knew her golfers. That'sbecause her mom, Wendy, pointed out the players walking thecourse with Jessica's father, Bruce, and told her who they were.Of course a three-year-old has questions. "She asked me, 'IsDaddy as good as Jack Nicklaus?'" Wendy recalls, "and I said,'No, but Jack Nicklaus is very, very good.' Then she asked, 'IsDaddy as good as Tickle Monster?' That's what she called PayneStewart--we were really close to him--and I said, 'No, but Daddyhas done better than him sometimes when they play together.'Then she asked, 'Well, who is Daddy as good as?'"

It took 16 years for Jessica to get a definitive answer, but onthe 1999 Senior tour, her daddy was better than everyone. Sevenvictories, seven runner-up finishes, $2.5 million in earningsand the No. 1 spot on the money list say so. Hale Irwin, king ofthe tour the previous two seasons, has been dethroned by aself-professed journeyman.

Gary McCord was performing in the press tent after the thirdround of last week's Ingersoll-Rand Senior Tour Championship atthe Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C., when henoticed that Fleisher, who had a share of the lead and wasthreatening to win number 8, was waiting nearby for his turn toanswer questions. "How much is enough, Flash?" McCord asked."Tell me, how much is enough?"

Fleisher supplied an answer the next afternoon. He had been thetour's ace closer all year, but suddenly he looked like JohnRocker in October while McCord, who never won a PGA Tour eventand loves to talk about his ineptitude, finished like theYankees. McCord holed a 45-foot birdie putt at the 10th hole,saved par with putts of at least six feet on four of the nextsix holes and took the lead with a 20-footer for birdie at 17. Apar on 18 gave him a five-under 67, which, combined with the 64he shot the day before, made him 13 under for the weekend and 12under for the week.

The role reversal was complete when Fleisher's birdie putt at the15th hung on the lip, and he followed with a couple of bogeys. Abirdie at the difficult 18th lifted Fleisher into a tie forsecond with Larry Nelson, who had closed with a 65, a strokebehind McCord.

The perfect ending to a perfect season would have had Fleisher,who opened the year by winning the first two full-field events,chalking up his eighth victory a few hours after Tiger Woods haddone the same thing in Spain. Alas, such sweet symmetry was notto be. Instead, the millennium ended with an almost unfathomablesecond Senior win by McCord, who had been 0-for-life going intothe season--not counting the 1991 Ben Hogan Gateway Open, an eventthat died shortly after he won it, no doubt a suicide.

McCord's week in Myrtle Beach was like a sitcom, which wasappropriate considering that he is shopping an idea for oneabout the zany denizens of Tired Tree Muni, a decidedly low-rentgolf course. For openers, McCord shot 65 in a practice round and"never made a bogey," he said. "Made seven birdies. I thought,Wow, I got it." The next day, in the pro-am, he shot a 78 andsaid the first thing that came to his mind was, Wow, I haven'tgot it. McCord began the tournament with a 71 and followed witha 74, which precipitated a long session on the range.

"Usually, if you don't have it, you can get it back the nextweek if you work hard," McCord said. "But we only had two morerounds so I couldn't let it go." Why the sense of urgency?Because McCord began the week 25th on the money list and onlythe top 24 don't have to play both weekly pro-am rounds. Tosomeone with as much on his plate as McCord, making the top 24is like receiving a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card.

What finally set him free, McCord said, was something heremembered on Friday evening, one of Woods's mantras: wide,tight and rip it. By mimicking Tiger's wide takeaway, McCordmade a better weight shift. Tight meant keeping his left kneestill and turning his shoulders instead. We all know what rip itmeans, and we also know how McCord fared on the weekend. The$347,000 he won was more than enough to give him Wednesdays offand left him only $7,000 short of one of his goals for the year,to make $1 million. Not bad considering he played only 17tournaments. "It's a stupid game," said McCord. "You attack it,don't give up, and you never know when it's going to go boinkright in front of you. That's basically what it did. A week likethis is unbelievable."

The week--boink--belonged to McCord, but the year wasFleisher's. A phenom who won the 1968 U.S. Amateur and thenstole the show at the '69 Masters by outscoring his playingpartner, Arnold Palmer, in the first round, Fleisher never livedup to expectations and by the late-'80s had drifted off the Tourand into a club pro's job. He remained competitive, winning aslew of club pro events as well as, at 42, his only Tour title,the 1991 New England Classic, to which he gained entry as thefirst alternate. He was among the lucky eight to make it throughlast fall's Senior Q school, and once on the tour he took noprisoners. "We waited 30 years for a year like this," says Wendy.

When Fleisher shot 73 in the second round last week, he ended astreak of 16 subpar rounds. "Bruce is in that little innersanctum of playing well, and he's been in it the whole year,"said McCord. "Most of us are outside that sanctum trying to getin. If Bruce shoots 71 or 72, that's a freak show for him. He'sused to shooting 67, 68. Sports psychiatrists call it the zone.He's pretty much been baptized in the zone this year, just likeHale Irwin was last year."

There is no real secret to Fleisher's success. On the regularTour he was a short, low-ball hitter up against long, high-ballhitters such as Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman. On the Senior tourall you've got to do to be successful is hit the ball reasonablystraight, wield a deadly wedge and putt like a 30-year-old. Thatdescribes Fleisher's game. On the PGA Tour he was good enougharound the greens to hang in there with much younger players and,once he turned 50, lead the Senior tour in putting, which allowedhim to beat his peers like a set of congas.

For Fleisher the most difficult aspect of the season was dealingwith everything that came with his success. A humble man whoselack of confidence may have held him back in the past, Fleisherfound the extra attention unnerving at first. "I've always beenintimidated by Raymond Floyd, a guy who's won Opens and Masters,"says Fleisher. "Raymond has actually talked to me in the last fewweeks--not that he snubbed me before. I got, 'Good playing,Bruce.' I liked that. To have my name mentioned in the samesentence with Hale Irwin's, a man who has been so successful hiswhole life, is wonderful."

The entire year has been a wonder. Fleisher never dreamed hewould play in 32 events, but his outlook changed when he climbedto the top of the money list and entered uncharted territory asthe man to beat. "He has never tried to be Number 1," Wendy says,"but once he and Hale were neck and neck, he wanted to achievethat. It wasn't because it was Hale Irwin. Bruce doesn't thinkhe'll ever be a Hale Irwin. He just thought he might never getanother chance to be Number 1, so he had to go for it."

Adding to the pressure was a $350,000 bonus in Fleisher'sendorsement deal with Callaway if he finished atop the moneylist. The price of going for the gold? Last February, Fleisherwas hospitalized with a viral infection and ended up missing fourtournaments. He hasn't been home to Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., in15 weeks, so he hasn't enjoyed the new floors he put in his houseor the high-tech thin-screen TV that hangs from a living roomwall. "It has been a satisfying year," he says. "But fun? Ithasn't been fun. It's been a lot of sweat. Television always hasits eyeball on you. You're always dealing with your self-image,your ego. It's fun now because it's over. I just want to gohome."

Wendy has been home only once in three months, stopping off for12 hours after flying from Los Angeles to attend Payne Stewart'smemorial service in Orlando. Wendy says Stewart's widow, Tracey,told her, "Don't waste a minute with Bruce."

Stewart's death still hurts Fleisher, who wears a pin on hislapel in Stewart's memory. Fleisher had a tough day last Fridaywhen an old friend from Wilmington, N.C., where Fleisher grew up,came to watch him play. The friend is dying of cancer and wasdriven around the course in a cart. "When we saw him," Wendysays, "Bruce couldn't justify in his mind that we're having thebest year of our lives."

That was just another stressed-out day in a stressed-out yearthat doesn't seem to end. The Fleishers left Myrtle Beach onSunday night for an outing in Nashville. They're scheduled to goto Puerto Rico for this week's Senior Match Play Challenge. Afterthat comes the Nov. 18-20 Callaway Invitational at Pebble Beach,followed by two days in Los Angeles to shoot a commercial andthen--at last!--home for 10 days around Thanksgiving. Fleisher willplay in the Diners Club Matches in December, and then he andWendy will go on a weeklong Christmas cruise, a bonus for winningthe Royal Caribbean Classic. About two weeks after that, the 2000season kicks off.

There barely seems to be time to breathe, much less recharge thebatteries and savor a career year. "When I sit down atThanksgiving dinner with my whole family," Fleisher says, asmile creeping over his face, "that's when I'm going to say,'Wow, what a special year.'"

Jessica will be there. She's 19 and a sophomore at Florida. "Shethinks her father is the bomb," Wendy says. In teenspeak, thatmeans he's great.

That's right, Jessica. In 1999 Dad was the best.

COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY JIM GUND Having a blast Fleisher finished second at the Senior Tour Championship, but had already wrapped up the 1999 money title.COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY JIM GUND Sneaky good The wisecracking McCord turned serious when he saw his chance of avoiding Wednesday pro-ams slipping away.COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY JIM GUND Hale of a year Irwin wound up with five wins and more than $2 million.

Rookie Sensations

If Bruce Fleisher had won last week in Myrtle Beach, S.C., hewould have become the winningest first-year player ever on theSenior tour. Here are the best rookie seasons in the tour'shistory.